Entone Inc. has announced that Interstate Telecommunication Cooperative Inc. (ITC) has chose the vendor’s innovative Hydra IP video gateway for its IPTV rollout, in an effort to slash deployment costs.
The gateway is helping power the delivery of ITC’s triple play, with the alluring wrinkle being that it obviates the need for set-top boxes. The operator provides local telephone, high-speed Internet and digital TV to customers in South Dakota and Minnesota.
The Hydra IP video gateway is part of Entone’s Connected Home Solution that eliminates the need for multiple set-top boxes (STB) or new home wiring to deliver IPTV services. Hydra can deliver multiple video streams over a single DSL or Ethernet connection using existing in-home coax cabling, according to the vendor.
“The installation costs represent a major focal point in the business case for delivering IPTV services,” comments Jerry Heiberger, General Manager of ITC, in prepared comments. “Entone’s Hydra IP video gateway has enabled us to significantly increase the productivity of our installation teams and reduced the cost per home for deploying our triple-play services, while providing our users a true connected home experience.”
The result is a dramatic cost savings over single decoder STB approaches. Hydra also supports whole home networking technologies such as HomePNA, HomePlug, and 802.11n for enabling high speed delivery of rich media throughout the home using existing coax wiring.
